Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

privacy and quaero s quest for the perfect search engine
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities Michael Zimmer, PhD Fellow, Information Society Project Yale Law School Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities


slide-1
SLIDE 1

Michael Zimmer, PhD

Fellow, Information Society Project Yale Law School

Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities

slide-2
SLIDE 2
  • 1. Perfect Search Engine: 10100
  • 2. Faustian Bargain
  • 3. Quaero’s Perfect Search
  • 4. Threats & Opportunities

Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities

slide-3
SLIDE 3

3

Perfect Search Engine

  • “process and understand all the

information in the world”

– perfect reach

  • “understand exactly what you mean and

give back exactly what you want”

– perfect recall

“Like the mind of God”

slide-4
SLIDE 4

4

Perfect Reach

“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

slide-5
SLIDE 5

5

Perfect Reach

  • God-like omnipotence
  • Personal data previously obscure is

now searchable

– Usenet posts – Court documents – Old, incorrect news articles – Images, video, blog comments, etc.

slide-6
SLIDE 6

6

Perfect Recall

  • Provide results that suit the context and intent
  • f the search query:

“Paris Hilton”

  • User satisfaction & loyalty
  • Increased revenues
slide-7
SLIDE 7

7

Perfect Recall

  • God-like of omniscience
  • Collect as much information as possible

about the searcher

– Server logs – Cookies – User accounts

slide-8
SLIDE 8

8

Server Logs

123.45.67.89 - 25/Mar/2003 10:15:32 -

http://www.google.com/search?q= join+alcoholics+anonymous

Firefox 1.0.7; Windows NT 5.1 - 740674ce2123e969

IP Address Date & Time Cookie ID Search terms: Join Alcoholics Anonymous Also likely includes results clicked, referring page, and other clickstream data

slide-9
SLIDE 9

9

Perfect Recall

  • Over two dozen products & services
  • Interconnected via cookies & Google

Accounts

  • Contacts, news, subscriptions, blogs, books,

stocks, appointments, e-mail, friends, computer files, discussion groups, URLs…

slide-10
SLIDE 10

10

Faustian Bargain

  • Perfect search engine promises

breadth, depth, efficiency, and relevancy…

  • …but lose “security via obscurity”
  • …and involves the widespread capture
  • f personal and intellectual information

Will Quaero offer to re-negotiate this Faustian bargain?

slide-11
SLIDE 11

11

Quaero’s Perfect Search

  • Combined sound, image and video search
  • Technologically sophisticated, professional

search applications

  • Index of cultural heritage
  • Public-private initiative

Offers both threats & opportunities to preserve user privacy…

slide-12
SLIDE 12

12

Privacy Threats: Reach

  • Technologically sophisticated

multimedia search: a possible scenario

– User-generated content – Tagging: GPS data, date & time – Facial recognition

  • While increasing Quaero’s reach, these

combine into possible privacy threats…

slide-13
SLIDE 13

13

slide-14
SLIDE 14

14

GPS: 40.75704, - 73.98597 Date: 10-Sept-2007 Time: 20:25 Camera: Nokia N95

slide-15
SLIDE 15

15

slide-16
SLIDE 16

16

Privacy Threats: Reach

  • These are cute, user-generated

examples

  • But more serious threats persist when

indexing images of events of more cultural and historical importance

slide-17
SLIDE 17

17

Surveillance Protest

slide-18
SLIDE 18

18

Gay Pride March

slide-19
SLIDE 19

19

Neo-Nazi Demonstration

slide-20
SLIDE 20

20

Privacy Threats: Reach

  • Great value in user-contributed images
  • And image recognition systems make

search more powerful

  • But must not allow a new Faustian

bargain to emerge

– Just because in public doesn’t mean image should be identified, indexed and searched – Unfounded association, assumptions, discrimination, etc.

slide-21
SLIDE 21

21

Privacy Threats: Recall

  • Similar threats persist with potential

logging of user search activity

  • What will it mean to have one’s search

history tied to controversial or illegal subjects?

– Holocaust denial information – Historical meeting places for Islamic radicals

More harmful than what Google knows about me?

slide-22
SLIDE 22

22

Opportunity

  • Value-conscious design

– Include values of moral & ethical import in initial design process – Pragmatic engagement & collaboration with technical designers

  • Too late to engage with Google

– Recent changes trivial

  • But designers of Quaero can build in

values from the ground-up

slide-23
SLIDE 23

23

Wikia Search Model

  • Transparency

– Openness in how the systems and algorithms

  • perate
  • Community

– Everyone is able to contribute in some way; strong social and community focus.

  • Quality

– Significantly improve the relevancy and accuracy

  • f search results and the searching experience.
  • Privacy

– Must be protected, do not store or transmit any identifying data.

slide-24
SLIDE 24

24

Design for Privacy

  • 1. Quaero must be designed in such a way as

to prevent any substantive response to a civil or criminal subpoena of user activity

  • 2. Quaero must be designed so IP addresses

and cookies cannot be associated with particular users or accounts

  • 3. Query traffic must be encrypted to prevent

'man in the middle' monitoring

  • 4. Quaero must provide transparency in the

data it collects about users, how it is used, who uses it, and how long it is retained

slide-25
SLIDE 25

25

Design for Privacy

  • 5. Quaero must not engage in personalized or

behaviorally-targeted advertising

  • 6. Quaero must take steps to remove or
  • bscure personally-identifiable images

(faces, license plates, etc) from its searchable index

  • 7. Quaero must provide individuals the ability

to remove or obscure personally-identifiable data from its searchable index

  • 8. Quaero must provide users the ability to

view, edit, and delete any search history data associated with their account

slide-26
SLIDE 26

26

Summary

  • Unique proposition

– Build a robust, sophisticated search engine

  • f cultural knowledge and history

– Relatively unfettered by traditional market forces

  • Unique opportunity

– Design for values – Protect user privacy – Avoid another Faustian bargain with “the mind of God”

slide-27
SLIDE 27

Michael Zimmer, PhD

Fellow, Information Society Project Yale Law School michael.zimmer@yale.edu Http://michaelzimmer.org

Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities